Kalita honored as ASABE Fellow

Prasanta Kalita, a professor of soil and water resources engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE), was honored at the 2013 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International Meeting as an ASABE Fellow.

ASABE has established that “a Fellow shall be a member of unusual professional distinction, with outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in, or related to the field of agricultural, food, or biological engineering.” Kalita has earned this distinction over 25 years of ASABE membership; he is recognized as an international scholar, researcher, and expert in the area of water management and water quality issues.

His basic research has focused in characterizing pollutant transport pathways from source areas to the receiving water bodies, developing mathematical relationships to define transport mechanisms, and validating the relationship. As leader of ABE's Soil and Water Resources Engineering Section, his applied research includes designing and developing best management practices to control pollution and evaluating the effects of various applied field-based research to calibrate and validate computer simulation models. Kalita, who is also an assistant dean of research in the College of ACES, has successfully formed and worked with multidisciplinary groups of researchers on campus, across the U.S., and internationally, with collaborators in India, Lebanon, Jordan, and Sierra Leone.

In 2012, Kalita was the recipient of the NACTA Teaching Award of Excellence. This award is presented to one individual who demonstrates excellence in post-secondary instruction in agriculture. He is also a University Distinguished Teacher Scholar at the U of I and has won numerous departmental, college, and campus awards. Other teaching awards include the USDA National Award for Excellence in College and University Teaching and the NACTA Central Regional Outstanding Teacher Award. 

He has been actively involved in a multi-year project on an agricultural innovation partnership (AIP) for developing and reforming agricultural curricula in India, and he has worked to establish a “Center for Teaching Excellence” at several Indian universities.
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Source: Prasanta Kalita, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 217/333-0945.

Writer: Leanne Lucas, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 217/333-2862.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.